Internet resources to help kids with homework

2020hindsight · 31 March 2007

having seen my kids wrestling with "finding stuff on the internet", and given the mountains of homework they get, and likewise the mountains of great stuff out there... just figured it was in everyone's interests to share some of this

eg http://www.skwirk.com/p-u_s-16_u-306/geography-skills/nsw/geography - starters in geography
http://geography.about.com/ this one is brillinat, plus so many wild offshoots from the topic, hurricane names etc

http://geography.about.com/od/findmaps/ig/Country-Maps/index.htm etc
http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/ig/Country-Flags.--Az/index.htm
plenty more for maths etc.

http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/2007names.htm
For every year, there is a pre-approved list of names for tropical storms and hurricanes. These lists have been generated by the National Hurricane Center since 1953. At first, the lists consisted of only female names; however, since 1979, the lists alternate between male and female.

Hurricanes are named alphabetically from the list in chronological order. Thus the first tropical storm or hurricane of the year has a name that begins with "A" and the second is given the name that begins with "B." The lists contain names that begin from A to W, but exclude names that begin with a "Q" or "U."

2007 Hurricane Names

Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy

etc etc - I guess if they run out of letters/names, they start pinching next year's names ?

PS I'm reminded of the bloke in the Optus ad ... " Great Wall of China?? - Rabbits , son!! China had a lot of Rabbits!!
PPS I met a Chinese Engineer who was working in the Pacific (Chinese Overseas Engineering Corpn - he has now returned to China) - just loved the internet - spent all his free time "learning", without any Big Brothers looking over his shoulder etc.
PPS Another Chinese Engineer there was on a 3 year contract - during that time, his one and only child was born back in China ( single child policy) , said her first words, took her first steps, - and he saw none of it .
moral? - enjoy your kids folks

2020hindsight · 31 March 2007

anyone gotta favourite unit conversion website?
this one is pretty straightforward and user friendly
http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/

but if you need the strange ones ....
eg 1 chinese foot = 0.116 bamboos (?)
http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_all.htm

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

still gotta find one that says 1 sydney harbour = 560 GL

Also volume under the deck of the bridge , span of arch roughly 500m x height 50m x width 50m , subtract the start and end of the arch from the volume and you get near as dammin 1GL (I think Sydney uses 1.5 GL per day, maybe in summer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge#Description
and volume = 16GL if you take that extrusion as far as the Opera house

and if you take that extrusion from south head to parramatta = 23 km approx, you get about 556GL which is 1 Sydney Harbour (all approx)

Geologically, Port Jackson is a drowned river valley, .. It is 19 km long with an area of 55 km². The estuary's volume at high tide is 562,000 megalitres. (CALL THIS 560 GL) ...

In Australia the size of many bodies of water are referenced back to the size of Sydney Harbour, that is a body of water x is y times the size of the Sydney Harbour. For example:
Lake Argyle, the Ord river dam and Australia's largest lake, is variously described as "18 times that of Sydney Harbour" [2], "8-13 times the size the volume of Sydney Harbour." [3], and "nine times the size of Sydney Harbour" [4]. (?? bit confused there )

Warragamba Dam in New South Wales and Sydney's major water supply is described as being "4 times the size of Sydney Harbour" [5].

Lake Eucumbene, one of the major dams in the Snowy Mountains Scheme, "holds nine (eight surely??) times the volume of Sydney Harbour" [6], . (again some confusion??)

The "volume of the Harbour BRIDGE" i.e. 48.8m wide x 503m arch span x 49m clearance above water at midspan.

2020hindsight · 31 March 2007

2020hindsight said:
but if you need the strange ones ....
http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_all.htm

never heard of half these lol, but might add some interest for the kids.

light year (traditional) = 94.5 E 18 "hair's breadths". = 9.454 E15 metres
whereas a
light year (tropical) = 94.6 E18 "hair's breadths".

PS 1 "hairs breadth" is apparently 0.1mm (if anyones interested) - I suspect nobody could give a shinbone lol.

PPS THere's 0.8 of a pygme in an Argentinian pie , = pie [Argentinia], which means you have some of him left over if you're making steak and pygmy pie

1 river [Egypt] = 2km etc etc (bludy short river - they should ve called that a "creek" ??)

2020hindsight · 31 March 2007

http://www.onlineconversion.com/energy.htm
Since tonight is the big energy reduction effort ,
1 US gallons of diesel = 49 kilowatt hours

probably sg of diesel is about 0.85, weight of a gallon = 3.2 kg say
then a ton of diesel
(1000 kg say, or 300 gallons of diesel say) = 300x49 = 15,000 kilowatt hours say.
and a kiloton on diesel = 15,000,000 kilowatt hours

Also since the world is getting nuclear
1 kiloton of explosive = only 1,162,222 kilowatt hours

?? must be a mistake.

PS what's the conversion rate to carbon?

2020hindsight · 31 March 2007

Doh, kilotons of TNT.
Looks like I just proved that TNT is less efficient than diesel.

Still haven't got a clue how this converts to carbon (you there smurf? lol)

Smurf1976 · 31 March 2007

I'm here...

Petroleum fuels generally 34 - 41 MJ / litre. Highest for high sulphur heavy residual fuels, lowest for the high octane petrols, solvents etc.

LPG and ethanol both about 25 MJ / litre.

LPG and LNG both about 50 MJ / kilogram.

Oil products generally low 40's per kilogram.

Coal varies generally 10 - 30 MJ / Kg.

Latrobe Valley (Vic, brown coal) about 10 MJ / Kg.

Anglesea (Vic, brown coal) about 15 MJ / Kg.

Fingal (Tas, sub-bituminous) about 25 MJ / Kg.

NSW and Queensland export grade coals generally high 20's to low 30's.

Firewood typically 16.2 MJ/ Kg as burned (20% moisture).

As for carbon, the mass (weight) of fossil fuel is basically carbon, moisture and impurities. Brown coal is up to 70% water but for everything else it's a lot lower. Each kilogram of dry fossil fuel burned produces roughly 3 kilograms of CO2.

Be careful converting the units, especially into electrical units, since conversion efficiency of fuel into electricity is generally quite low. It ranges from the low 20's into the 50's % for operating plants in Australia. Most of the big coal-fired plants are operating 27 - 30% (brown coal) or 33 - 40% (black coal) but there are exceptions. Both the best and worst efficiencies can be found in various gas-fired plant depending on type, age and usage. Hydro plant efficiency typically over 90% but there are some older staions that operate below 80% efficiency. I've no idea what the conversion efficiency of a wind turbine is (not that it really matters since wind isn't a scarce resource).

As for Earth Hour, it didn't actually cut power demand that much. A bit of a blip but nothing of any real significance in terms of overall generation.

insider · 31 March 2007

yep... the internet is the best place to cut and paste your assignments from...

jtb · 1 April 2007

Smurf,

What about good ol' Collie black anthracite ?
33 MJ our last report
Chugging through 160t/hr up here atm (Collie WA) sitting on 340MW @ 2200hrs.

Wondering where the control room is on your avatar?

2020,

My personal favourite is www.howstuffworks.com.

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

thanks smurf , brilliant as usual.
Hopefully the Earth Hour will still be a longterm success in at least reinforcing the environmental message, even if limited measureable effect and "token" as you say.

thanks also jtb - plenty of general knowledge there for kids - and equally for adults like me lol.

insider · 1 April 2007

Hey 2020... do you know where you can buy one of those hand gliders like your avatar

Smurf1976 · 1 April 2007

jtb said:
Smurf,

What about good ol' Collie black anthracite ?
33 MJ our last report
Chugging through 160t/hr up here atm (Collie WA) sitting on 340MW @ 2200hrs.

Wondering where the control room is on your avatar?

2020,

My personal favourite is www.howstuffworks.com.

Forgot about Collie...

I'll send a PM re the control room etc to avoid taking the thread too far off-topic since energy was only an example and not the purpose of the thread.

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

insider said:
Hey 2020... do you know where you can buy one of those hand gliders like your avatar

insider, I don't know many options , but Bill Moyes was a pioneer, and hence a good place to start. Bit like Hargraves, He used to tether himslf to the ground down at Stanwell ( I think) to fine tune his rogallo. (these were the old triangular looking things - rather two isosceles triangles I guess - equal length of centrekeel as wingedges - they were developed during research for space - landings etc). His son was world champion back in the early 80's. And he was kind enough to give a few of us some tips in HK on his way back from the world championships. Rogallos had glide ratio of about 4 to 1 , these days I think they are up around 12 to 1.
http://www.moyes.com.au/

others here:-
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=hang+gliders+australia&meta=

This is the bloke piloting the glider in the avatar - he was taking my daughter for a ride. : - (no that's not my daughter lol).
http://www.hanggliding.com.au/
I'd recommened you try before you buy. talk to Chris at Sydney Hang Gliding Centre. But be warned , you'll never be the same again - like pure adrenalin

PS getting off the topic - lets just call this thread "homework for adults or kids" - maybe "kids of all ages" lol.

PS I plan to take it up again - as soon as I get the mortgage down below 6 figures (three of us owned one in the islands - self taught - I've seen it all mate - people doing somesaults with em tied to their backs, lol - people getting caught in the trees - the keel broke - and with 1600 feet straight down if the tree branches let go - Sadly, another glider pilot there - by far the best - returned to USA - since killed when the glue on the brand sticker on the prop of his microlite attacked the glue between the laminations )

PS As for cut and pasting from internet direct into homework book - I guess the teachers might end up looking here as well ?

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

just reposting that brilliant post from noirua.
getta load of those lovely colours on earth . The only planet that looks like a painting. . As someone once said, it would have made more sense to call it "Water" , rather than "Earth"

PS Antares is the brightest star in Scorpio - I like it - it is the red coloured star at the heart of the Scorpion. .

wikipedia ....Antares' name derives from the Greek Αντάρης, meaning "(holds) against Ares (Mars)", due to the similarity of its reddish hue to the appearance of the planet Mars. This distinctive coloration has made the star an object of interest to many societies throughout history. According to ancient Arab tradition, Antares is the warrior-poet Antar's star. Many of the old Egyptian temples are oriented so that the light of Antares plays a role in the ceremonies performed there. Some writers claim that it is the "lance star" referred to in the Biblical book of Job. ... also Persian references, India etc

http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html ANTARES (Alpha Scorpii). A brilliant jewel set within the Milky Way, Antares guides us to one of the great constellations of the sky, the Zodiac's Scorpius (or Scorpio), the celestial scorpion, one of the few constellations that actually looks like what it represents. Antares, a class M (M1.5) red supergiant gleaming redly at the scorpion's heart, has a color similar to Mars. Since it is found within the Zodiac, which contains the apparent path of the Sun and planets, it is commonly mistaken for the red planet, a fact shown by its name, Antares, or "Ant-Ares," which means "like Mars," "Ares" being the Greek name for the god of war. This magnificent first magnitude (typically 0.96) star, shining opposite Betelgeuse, its counterpart in Orion, is ranked the 15th brightest in the sky. It is, however, a semi-regular variable that can change by several tenths of magnitude over a period of years. Its great distance of 600 light years reveals that it is truly luminous, to the eye over 10,000 times brighter than the Sun. Because it is cool, only about 3600 degrees Kelvin at its surface, it radiates a considerable amount of its light in the invisible infrared. When that is taken into account, the star becomes some 60,000 times brighter than the Sun.

I'm reminded of that maths question (dead simple really, but might interest kids)..
You have a piece of string that goes around the "equator" of an orange - ends just touch. You add 1 metre to the string, and make it into a circle equal distance from the orange all round. Q: How far off the orange is the string (i.e. difference in radius of string and orange?) closest of the following options:-
a) 1 inch
b) 150mm
c) 300mm

You repeat the exercise, but this time with the earth. Piece of string around the equator - ( ignoring mountains etc) - add 1 metre to the length of string - make a circle so that the string is equally off the surface all the way around the earth - how high off the earth?
a) 1 inch
b) 150mm
c) 300mm

Ditto for Jupiter (or the sun - using fireproof string )

Answer its the same in all cases , i.e. 1000/2/pi = 159mm

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

600 light years to Antares...
points to ponder..
1 light second = 300,000 km
(which is just another way to say that the speed of light is 300,000 km / sec )
Speed of light first measured accurately in 1670 !! - amazing !!
so in 1 second, a light beam would bounce between Sydney and Brisbane 300 times approx. (assuming that the curvature didnt get in the way )
I'm sure there are other rivetting ways to look at the speed of light
How “old” are the light rays from the moon, for instance? 385,000 km = I make it just over 1 second
http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/Worlds/earthmoon.htm

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/lightspeed_evidence.html How has the speed of light been measured?

That's a very good question. In the early 17th century, many scientists believed that there was no such thing as the "speed of light"; they thought light could travel any distance in no time at all

Galileo disagreed, and he came up with an experiment to measure light's velocity: he and his assistant each took a shuttered lantern, and they stood on hilltops one mile apart. Galileo flashed his lantern, and the assistant was supposed to open the shutter to his own lantern as soon as he saw Galileo's light. Galileo would then time how long it took before he saw the light from the other hilltop. And then he could just divide the distance by the time to get the speed. Did it work? Nope. The problem was that the speed of light is simply too fast to be measured this way; light takes such a short time (about 0.000005 seconds, in fact) to travel one mile that there's no way the interval could have been measured using the tools Galileo had.

So what you'd need is a really long distance for the light to travel, like millions of miles. How could someone set up an experiment like that?
Well...during the 1670's, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer was making extremely careful observations of Jupiter's moon Io. Roemer was able to calculate a value for the speed of light. The number he came up with was about 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 kilometers per second.
etc etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning "swiftness". It is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation in a vacuum, not just visible light.

In metric units, c is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second (1,079,252,848.8 km/h). Note that this speed is a definition, not a measurement, since the fundamental SI unit of length, the metre, has been defined since October 21, 1983 in terms of the speed of light: one metre is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Converted to imperial units, the speed of light is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second, or 670,616,629.384 miles per hour, or almost one foot per nanosecond

finally on Antares... http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html again

Antares, with a mass of 15 to 18 solar masses, probably does not have much time left to it. It is massive enough someday to develop an iron core and eventually to explode as a brilliant supernova. The event may be a million years off, an astronomical blink of an eye; or it may occur tonight, so keep a watch on one of the great stars of the nighttime sky.

sorry folks, I find this stuff fascinating - gonna wait up late tonight and see if I see Antares blow up - or rather , to see if it blew up 600 years ago.!

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

Montana Uni seems pretty switched on (NASA involvement?). - although mostly "activities" for you to fill in, there is still a lot of good oil. eg the following "photo" of the planets
http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/PlanetSizes/planet01.html

Some people have a method of remembering this sequence - personally I keep forgetting

http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/SiteMap.html#one
http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/SiteMap.html#twentysix , etc

for example...
Big bang:- http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/Universe/uni1.html#activity1

PS gotta feeling that Pluto no longer qualifies - although no doubt, yet again, the experts will argue on that.
PS makes a change from arguing about religion or politics Iguess

insider · 1 April 2007

thanx 2020

Do you need a license or experience

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

insider said:
a license or experience

They have a system of ranking various sites, and skill levels - I'm not the best to ask They used to talk of "Hang 1" , Hang 2 etc - Like "Hang 10" has nothing to do with surfboards ok? lol. I notice this is pretty recent on the topic...

http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/
CIVL stands for "Commission Internationale de Vol Libre" and is the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Commission of FAI. CIVL oversees many aspects of these sports: safety, international competitions (cross-country, aerobatic, landing accuracy), world records and environmental affairs.

"Let your life be a dream, and dream be a reality"
Antoine de St-Exupéry
Today, one of Mankind's oldest dreams – to fly like a bird - is a reality. Welcome to the world of hang gliding and paragliding!
And welcome to our CIVL web site!
New formula for the World Pilot Ranking System
Submitted by lj on Sat, 17/03/2007 - 11:00.

The new, improved World Pilot Ranking System (WPRS) is up and running!
A new formula for calculating the World Pilot Ranking System (WPRS), proposed by the CIVL Scoring & Ranking Systems and Software Working Group, was discussed and agreed at the Plenary meeting in Talloires, France, in February 2007. The agreed implementation date was 1st March, 2007.

The new formula marks a significant improvement on the old versions, and importantly, the same formula can now be used for all disciplines. The disciplines covered by the WPRS include: Paragliding XC, Paragliding Accuracy, Paragliding Aerobatics (Syncro and Solo), Hang Gliding XC Class1, Hang Gliding XC Class 2, Hang Gliding Class 5 and Hang Gliding Aerobatics. Within each discipline, the rankings for Nations and Women are also listed.

Lol, there's a great quote here (plus a lot of other stuff - including ranking ofindividuals)
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/9.099

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sun ward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee,jr 1922 - 1944. (written more or less whilst test flying a new Spitfire or some such around the time of Battle of Britain - poem was virtually finished when he touched down - later killed in a crash - I posted some detail on poetry thread) Sorry - back to your question, speak to the Greg Moyes or Chris or similar.

PPS those planets ? My Vitamin Enriched Macca Junkfood - Still Under Nourished Punkfood " (?)

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

constellations, courtesy of Uni of Illinois
eg again using Antares as an example...
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sow.html
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sowlist.html
also .. http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/cm6.html

2020hindsight · 1 April 2007

To find south pole .. .(despite the fact that 99% of you already know )

PS This only works at night I'm sure everyone also knows the one about finding North (by day), point the 12 of watch towards sun, bisect angle between 12 and hourhand, etc etc. (or as someone once said - swing watch around above your head, let it go, it always goes west )

2020hindsight · 2 April 2007

here's a thought for the day - you're on a desert island, and you need to know your longitude and latitude.
1. stick a stick in the ground, measure the angle of the shadow, (max on any day)
2. average over 6 months gives you latitude (co-angle whatever its called - 90 degress minus slope of shadow, like at the equator the slope would be average 90, and your latitude nil)
3. on any day measure the time on two occasions , one with a shadow just less than max slope (just before local "noon") and one on the other side of noon with the same slope - the average time gives you noon (you need your watch on Greenwich), and calculate 15 degrees per hour gives you longitude.
4. After which you dial up on your mobile phone and ask directory assistance for the number of any fishermen who operate in your area

PS gotta feelin it wouldn't work too well at north or south pole , but then you should know where you are because, - it'll be real cold, ok
and if you can't decide whether you're at the north or south pole ... you deserve to be lost!.

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